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But the 34-year-old singer who lives near Stroud says things are now “sweet and rosy” and and the baby daughter who was born 13 weeks premature is now a thriving one-year-old.

And the trauma means his fifth album due out next month is the soul music he always wanted to make rather than pop.

It includes the song So Beautiful that he wrote with Take That singer Gary Barlow ten years ago but at the time he thought it was too cheesy because he was only 21.

Gary Barlow

"I didn't like it at all when we wrote it, if I'm honest,” he told The Sun. “I thought it was too cheesy.

"But then I was only 21 and I already had You Give Me Something. But now the lyrics really sum up what we've been through."

Originally from Rugby, the singer became famous in 2006 when his debut single You Give Me Something climbed the charts. He is also well known for his hit Broken Strings featuring Nelly Furtado in 2008.

He was dubbed the new Otis Redding but the boy who once got a clementine and a packet of felt tips for Christmas disappeared off the scene to spend time at a walled mansion in the Gloucestershire countryside with Gill and daughter Elsie.

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He once described it to the Daily Mail as: "It’s a sort of 1900 country gentleman’s residence, which is hilarious because I was always an urban kid.

"But there are still times when I wake up wondering, “When is the landlord going to come round and kick me out?”

His father died through alcoholism while he was working on his 2015 album Higher Than Here and there was more to come.

"It was tough," he says. "After my dad died, I went on tour and tried to get over it but it didn't help. It took me a while to really grieve.

"But it wasn't just losing my dad — we also lost two babies which was a lot to take on in fast succession. Oh, and then I got dropped."

When Gail was pregnant with their second child she started having contractions at just 24 weeks and Ada was born at 27 weeks weighing just 1lb 11oz.

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Their daughter was in hospital for three months but despite fears she could be blind or deaf everything turned out well and Ada-Rose is a normal, happy baby.

Elsie, who's now ten, is a great big sister, he says.

"When Gill's waters broke and she was born so early and tiny, we didn't know what was going to happen,” he said. “ That is probably the lowest I've ever been.

"That's why now, looking back, I called the album You're Stronger Than You Know, as Gill was amazing."

The 2007 Brit Awards (Image: The Daily Mirror)

He added: "The album title is for Gill as she's been through so much as a woman and a mum knowing we could lose the baby at any point.

"But it's brought us closer. I feel I can do anything after going through that. That's what inspired this album and why now is the right time to make music again."

Since 2006 he has sold millions of records, including four Top 10 albums, and notched up the Brit Award for Best British Male in 2007.

But he admits being hit hard when he was dropped by his record label and sensed something was wrong because he was being passed around A&R men while his management company signed George Ezra, James Bay and John Newman.